Steampunk cars

Cars have long been considered one of the most important manifestations of our geekiness to the outside world. There seem to be endless car mods, but we have to admit that the coolest of all must have something to do with steampunk – an art form that combines both the antique of the Victorian era and the imagination of science fiction. Below are 14 awesome steampunk car mods that any moto geek would die to have. Cummins Steampunk Rod

Via: Swanee 3
Spotted at 2009 Viva Las Vegas Car Show, this wonderful steampunk rat rod made quite an impression on the audience.King of the Road

Via: Pairadocs
Dubbed as King of the Road, this amazing steampunk car deserves its name to every centimeter. The huge wheels, the dusty brown, the authentic steampunk design, the King of the Road has everything to make any driver go crazy.Amazing Steampunk Car

Via: Whtthefsck
One of the finest steampunk car mods you will ever see, this amazing steampunk car comes with various gadgets and accessories that any science fiction fan can easily identify. Steampunk at its best!NYC Steampunk Car

Via: Good Experience
Imagine that you are walking down the broad avenues of glamorous and modern New York City and you suddenly spot this: an ultra cool steampunk rat rod that brings you right back to 1940s.Seattle Steampunk Car

Via: Maralinga
This steampunk car was spotted parking at Greenlake, Seattle. With the pipes and the horn from early 20th century, things can’t get any more steampunk.Steam Trunk Industries Rat Rod

Via: Steampunk Worship
Folks at Stream Trunk Industries have done a brilliant job when they took one of the best rat rods and blended in some Steampunk elements to build this wonderful steampunk rat rod.Steampunk Beetle

Via: Automopedia
A 1972 VW Beetle was modded into a super cool steampunk car by a steampunk freak and an engineering genius. Registered in Ohio as a 1985 assembled vehicle, the car managed to get itself the Mass plates STMPNK which is apparently short for “Steampunk.”Steampunk Mercedes

Via: Steampunk Workshop
Jake von Slatt spotted a 1929 Mercedes Gazelle SSK replica on eBay and bought it for $1500. He then did some magical changes with a lot brass to give it an amazing steampunk look.The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Steampunk Car

Via: Fotki
Fans of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” will have no problem recognizing this steampunk car. It is a ideal combination of aesthetics and geekiness.Art Deco Steampunk Car

Via: Source
Some might argue that this car of more of Art Deco than Steampunk, the wooden panels and antique design is enough to satisfy hardcore steampunk fans.Tawdry Steampunk Car

Via: Photomato
Despite tawdry details that we don’t normally see at a steampunk creation, this steampunk car, spotted at Maker Faire 2009, managed to keep basic characteristics and the Victorian look of a steampunk car.Steampunk Camaro

Via: Zedomax
This retro-futuristic Chevy Camaro, aka the Steampunk Kamaro, is something that will make you rub your eyes to see if it’s real or not. And yeah, it isn’t real. It’s only a graphic rendering by artist John ‘Jazz’ Vernon.Steampunk Automobile 1888

Via: Mesh Box BB
Powered by both a conventional engine, plus twin side engines built on an advance on the steam engine, this beautiful Steampunk Automobile 1888 features a powerful machine under a hood of dark wood, copper and brass. It’s a model designed y by a software called Clockwork Steampunk Automobile Pro.Steampunk Golden Car

Via: Alfo Art
This is another steampunk car design that will make you scream out loud: Why all cool things are not real? Folks behind Alfoart website did an amazing job when they took a photo of a normal daily car and turned it into an amazing steampunk car.

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s.[1] Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually the Victorian era Britain—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine.

Steampunk is sometimes compared to cyberpunk, although apart from the shared origins of the name, they have almost nothing in common. Their time period and level of technology are different and steampunk settings also tend to be less dystopian.

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

Do ANY of these use a boiler for power? No? Not steampunk then. I love the Cummins rod but the rest, meh

"Steampunk" is a style and fashion, not demanding steam be the actual motive power. Brass, Glass, Copper and Chrome are defining elements of the style, along with leather, lace and buckled straps instead of buttons or latches. It typically is supposed to be a "what if" style: "What if the Victorian English had flamethrowers and ray guns?" kind of thing.

"Mad Victorian Scientist" is a good theme for the period, too. Old school electrical components can be good visuals, like the exposed double pole knife switches, open air relays, Leyden jar capacitors, and sparky brush motors and generators. Tesla coils and Jacob's Ladder accoutrements also fit.

Wire or wagon style wheels are appropriate, wood whenever we'd use plastic, lots of rivets and exposed bolt heads, lots of hard piping with very little hose visible. External weighted governors, of course, and cogs and gears. A supercharger would be more appropriate than a turbo, at least visibly, ditto a carburetor (or a rotary/inline injection pump for a diesel), and an inline engine of either very few cylinders or an absurd number.

Most of the rat rods fail because they're too low and too, well, 20-30s in style, not to mention at least one of them is showing off a V engine. The rest, I have no words.

The diesel in the beginning comes close; I've attended a couple steam shows (including SteamCon). They'd have to pick it up and clean it up, throw more brass on it, hide the turbo somewhere, things like that.

Last edited by turbinepowered; 08-01-2011 at 06:54 PM.

Originally Posted by zukiphile

There is an area of a normal brain that lets the owner know the object works and needs to be left alone. Not all of us have it. It is like being colorblind.

Seems to me that 'steampunk' and 'rat rod' are actually similes for self powered junkyards on wheels. Must be hell trying to register one . Worse yet, it must be very tough to point to one with a smile on your face and proclaim, "that baby there - that's mine". Hey, different strokes for different folks
RB

Seems to me that 'steampunk' and 'rat rod' are actually similes for self powered junkyards on wheels. Must be hell trying to register one . Worse yet, it must be very tough to point to one with a smile on your face and proclaim, "that baby there - that's mine". Hey, different strokes for different folks
RB

Garmin Is My Pilot.

I am confident you are wrong, but instead of illustrating why, I will just make disparaging remarks about your reading comprehension.
-Zukjimpiphile

"Steampunk" is a style and fashion, not demanding steam be the actual motive power. Brass, Glass, Copper and Chrome are defining elements of the style, along with leather, lace and buckled straps instead of buttons or latches. It typically is supposed to be a "what if" style: "What if the Victorian English had flamethrowers and ray guns?" kind of thing.

Look...we know what Chris Harris thinks of the FR-S, and now we know what Jay Leno thinks, but what do 20 year old euro humping TCL'ers driving 10 year old golfs and who jerk it to TDIs think?! I don't think we've heard from them yet...

While Jeter's Morlock Night and Infernal Devices, Powers' The Anubis Gates, and Blaylock's Lord Kelvin's Machine were the first novels to which Jeter's neologism would be applied, they gave the term little thought at the time.[11] However, they were far from the first modern science fiction writers to speculate on the development of steam-based technology or alternative histories. Keith Laumer's Worlds of the Imperium (1962) and Ronald W. Clark's Queen Victoria's Bomb (1967) apply modern speculation to past-age technology and society.[12] Michael Moorcock's Warlord of the Air (1971)[13] is another early example. Harry Harrison's novel A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (1973) portrays a British Empire of an alternative year 1973...